Why You Should Buy the Book

Perfect Health Diet shows you how to optimize your diet and lifestyle to eliminate the causes of disease for a lifetime of great health.

The Perfect Health Diet is an ancestral (Paleo, Primal) diet that synthesizes insights from evolutionary biology and the dietary and nutritional literature to offer an innovative, yet ancestral, view of the optimal human diet.

The food is delicious – it resembles gourmet cuisines such as French, Thai, and Chinese. There’s good reason for a healthy diet to be tasty: our brains evolved to make us healthy, so the foods that make us happiest are also the ones that make us healthy. The diet is also less restrictive than other Paleo/Primal diets, making it easier to fit into modern life.

Perfect Health Diet explains the science of good health clearly and comprehensively. If you enjoy science, or want to know the reasons why ancestral diets work and modern diets make us obese and sick, you’ll love the insight you gain as you see many lines of evidence lead to the same conclusions.

447 Comments.

Thanks so much, Paul. I think that it might be viral, so I will keep an eye on things and focus on keeping a good diet. I appreciate your help. The book has a lot to absorb and understand, but I think that it is really great and I will probably dig into it again and again over the coming months. A lot of books don’t go to the trouble to look at so much research in support of their ideas. The book is really solid. Thanks so much for bringing the book to Nook (which helps to keep my small home from overflowing with books!). Best wishes.

Not purely Paleo by any means, Levitra, but I’ve set up a podcast to try to develop a community around drawing more information out of Paleo-related speakers and writers through listeners questions and comments. It looks like it’s going to be a slow start, so I’d appreciate your help. The site is http://www.bdnow.org. There are currently interviews with Joel Salatin and Sally Fallon posted. Today I’m talking to “1493” author Charles C. Mann (not too late to suggest questions!, which you can do at the site) and, later in the week, Dr Christopher Shade, an expert in Mercury Remediation. There is also a long running biodynamic food and farming discussiong group you can join at http://www.bdnow.org Thanks!

Paul – What about white potatoes? Irish Potatoes? I grow a lot of them. We sell them and serve them ‘new,’ with skins that slip. Knowing that the Irish at one time did pretty well on a diet of little more than potatoes (like 20 lbs a day, apparently!) and raw milk, I’m wondering just how bad they really are for us.

Asking because At one point I thought beans were going to be out of my diet forever and then I found out that ‘green beans’ are ‘greens’ and don’t have the anti-nutrients associated with mature ‘dried’ beans. Thanks!

Depending on the type you have to peel them. For most potatoes, all the saponins are under the skin. A “bintje” (Dutch heritage variety) has hardly any saponins so if no toxins were used in production or transport they can probably be eaten whole. It’s quite hard to find papers on saponin content of varieties 🙁

Safe preparation is e.g. cooking them, discarding the cooking water and peeling them. The cooking water will contain some (most?) of the toxins and the heat will deactivate (most) toxins too.

I like to peel them first and cook them in just enough water to boil them until the water has evaporated, and mash them with lots of butter. Not sure if that is safe, but it sure is tasty! In theory the all saponins are removed with the skin. Cut out green parts and black eyes.

I just finished the interview with Charles C. Mann of “1493” fame. He confirmed that in, for example, 1925 40% of the Irish people had nothing other than potatoes and milk as their diet. He said that a typical18 year old workman’s daily potato allowance would be about 12 pounds. He said that families typically owned enough milk cows to supply them all the milk they wanted to drink. I need to research this further. I know they have beautiful grass in Ireland. I just don’t understand how a family could be so poor that ll they could eat was potatoes and milk and yet they could afford the land to graze their cow on. Maybe there was a Commons and they simply owned a cow that grazed in the Commons. I dunno, but Mr Mann said that the diet is well documented by the British. around 1845, of course, the potato blight moved in and people couldn’t even get their potatoes to go with their milk and the suffering was horrible.

I just saw a documentary about potatoes in Ireland and apparently the blight hit one third of the people, the very poor who subsisted on only potatoes. The documentary further claimed that the potato helped the Irish go from 1 million to 8.5 million people. If that is true then potatoes are a really healthy food.

They also said that the Irish used to have a long thumbnail so they could easily peel the cooked potatoes 🙂

What i do not realize is if truth be told how you’re no longer really a lot more well-appreciated than you may be now. You are so intelligent. You already know thus significantly in terms of this topic, produced me individually believe it from so many varied angles. Its like women and men aren’t fascinated until it is one thing to do with Girl gaga! Your individual stuffs excellent. Always deal with it up!

It looks like they reserved an ISBN for it and ChaptersIndigo.ca picked it up. They work fast.

I haven’t announced it because the contract hasn’t yet been signed. But I am working on it.

There will be some differences. Scribner’s wants it to have more of a weight loss component. We will try to make it more accessible, have more introductory and transitional material explaining context. But until it’s written and edited I don’t know precisely what the differences will be. It’s not supposed to grow in length so some material may need to be cut out or moved to the web site.

I wonder if my symptoms might be helped by a diet like this. I have chronic anxiety, acne, hair loss, cold hands and feet in the winter, gas, constipation, eczema, dandruff, muscle pains and mites allergy. I don’t know if there is some condition that is causing all this (maybe you have an idea) but maybe this diet could help?

My husband and I just bought the Kindle version of the new book and we also ordered a hard copy to have both and so far we’re loving it!

I had a question about triglycerides… Right now I’m on Loc 547 in the Kindle version (for iPad) under chapter 3, in the section about composition of fats and protein. In reading how fatty acids are stored in triglycerides, it got me thinking about my own triglyceride levels on bloodwork.. they have always been extremely low. Is this bad? Maybe it has something to do with type 1 diabetes? Can you help me speculate what that might mean for me? Should I be trying to get triglycerides higher somehow?

I do eat plenty of fat. Does the diabetes possibly imply some faulty fat metabolism or something?

Thanks as always for your insights and great work!
Can’t wait to dig through the rest of the book!
KH

p.s.– Re: my reader result in the book about the low A1c (thank you! I’m blessed to be in there!)… my last A1c was 5.5 (when your book was published it had stood at 5.7) and I suspect it will be even a tad below 5.5 next time I get bloodwork done. Just letting you know in case they do any reprints, you can update that to 5.5 (by the way, that’s non-diabetic range!!! yay!!)

Such low triglycerides are extremely rare and I don’t know what it means. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it is connected to your type 1 diabetes. Natural insulin goes first through the liver, so the liver sees higher levels than the blood; injected insulin starts in the blood and so the liver sees the same levels as the rest of the body. So you get relatively less insulin in the liver than a normal person. Since normal people on PHD typically have triglycerides in the 50s, and insulin insulin drives glucose into the liver and promotes triglyceride formation, it’s plausible that triglycerides of 30 would be generated in your case.

I don’t know of any evidence that low triglycerides are a problem, and I don’t know of a surefire way to raise them. Probably eating fructose/sugar and coconut milk would be the most likely way for you to raise triglycerides. But the extra sugar might do more harm than good.

Thanks Paul. One more question (for now!) and then I’ll carry on the rest of the detective work 😀 …
For normal people, does all the fat we ingest have to go through the liver? Or is some of it absorbed in the small intestine? I’m just wondering where all my ingested fat is going if only a tiny percentage of it is incorporated into triglycerides, in my rare case…?
And do triglycerides serve to bring fatty acids to certain cells? Or do they also contribute directly to depositing adipose tissue?
Sorry for such complex questions…

Interesting thing is that even with my large increase in fat consumption over the last year, triglycerides didn’t increase. In 2007, when I was just eating whatever (lots of veggies, moderate carb, mod protein, lots of fruit, but no real restrictions) trigs were the same as this past year. My cholesterol did increase to something like 226? (which I was trying to do since it had been low at 176 pre-PHD) and my HDL and LDL have also increased and remained identical: HDL 100, LDL 100.

Who knows!? In any case, your information is very helpful and educational! Thank you immensely! 😀
KH

Normally, none of the long-chain (14-carbon or longer) fatty acids go through the liver — they are absorbed by the intestine and repackaged into chylomicrons which circulate going mostly to muscle or adipose tissue — while short- and medium-chain fatty acids go to the liver for transformation to other macronutrients, since these fatty acids have no use in the body.

Triglycerides are the primary way fats are exported from the liver.

Triglyceride levels in the blood are largely determined by the body’s utilization of fats, so when you get tissue consuming fats for energy (which low-carb diets are good at inducing), then triglycerides tend to be low.

Hi, I was wondering if Paul and Shou-Ching have any plan to translate The Perfect Health Diet into traditional Chinese? I would love to be able to give a copy of this book to friends & relatives in Taiwan.
Thank you.

Hi Paul, I’ve been listening to your Jimmy Moore podcasts with great interest. I’ve been following a low carb diet for a year (<60 gr/day) and have lost 47 pounds (female, 5'7", current wt 190 lbs). Twice, in the last two months, I tried to go VLC to break a very long plateau and all heck seemed to break lose. My anxiety levels went through the roof and my sleep was a disaster. Can't fall asleep/can't stay asleep. I feel not well daily. I've upped my carbs again and don't seem to be bouncing back (sleep wise – I’ve had nights where I barely slept at all). I'm interested in your perspective on "safe starches" (since this is obviously controversial). I've been following Dr. Davis of Wheat Belly for months and he states that there is no minimum required for carbs but if this is true why do I feel so horrible when they get so low? I'm interested in reading your book but I'm curious what you think of blood glucose reactions to eating things like potatoes? Dr. Davis has said he feels "it's just not worth it" from a blood lipid perspective. One indulgence in too many carbs leads to small dense LDL production. Before I order the book (and you may explain this in the book) I was just curious on your opinion of my reaction to VLC and the carb/blood lipid connection. I have an appointment tomorrow to start the ball rolling on testing my thyroid, hormones and cortisol. Do you think I should be looking at anything else based on my reaction to VLC? I’m wishing I had never tried the VLC but how is one to know … Thanks Paul!

Thank you Paul. Do my symptoms sound similar to someone who is sensitive to carb deficiency? I’ve been reading several testimonies on line today that sound exactly like my experience. I also read what Dr. Shanahan says about going low carb too quickly (not sure I did that). Sure would be nice if all the experts could agree 🙂 Just to clarify, I read your post on hyperglycemic toxicity and you state blood glucose over 140 mg/dl is harmful while Dr. Davis says over 100 mg/dl is to be avoided (http://blog.trackyourplaque.com/2011/02/glucomania.html). I would like to lose another 40 lbs and I’m a little afraid of adding back too many carbs – don’t want to hinder further weight loss (when the carbs go up I gain a few pounds). I ordered your book today from Indigo and look forward to reading it. In the meantime I’ve gone back to eating some more carbs from fruit, sweet potato and white rice until I get this figured out. I bought some melatonin (1 mg) and hope to get some sleep.

Yes, poor sleep, anxiety, and hypothyroid symptoms are common effects of very low carb dieting.

There’s no way to keep blood sugar continuously under 100 mg/dl except on a highly ketogenic diet.

Most people find that eating 400-600 calories per day as carbs, mostly starches, aids weight loss. It reduces hunger and reduces the stress of the diet. The basic reason why is presented in Chapter 17 of the book.

Paul, while I await my book – I’m wondering how long does it take to bounce back? I’ve upped the carbs for a few days and still feel lousy. Slept only 3 hours last night. Should the improvement happen quickly or can it take awhile?

It depends. The thyroid typically takes a month or so to fully adapt to a new dietary regimen. Some problems resolve quicker, some longer. If you are malnourished in more things than carbs, it will take however long is required to eliminate the deficiencies.

Hi again Paul, I’m so sorry to keep asking questions but I’ve been blogging about my low carb journey for almost a year and I am DEFINITELY going to blog about this “event” when I’m feeling better. People need to know that this can happen – it has not been pleasant. For this reason, I’m just trying to really understand what I’m feeling and why (if possible). For months I haven’t felt any hunger. Don’t wake up hungry and don’t feel hungry through the day. I ate around 1,600 cal/day (roughly 60-70% fat – kept carbs <45 net grams most of the time – until the end where I had them <20 net grams). This morning I woke up starving I had to eat immediately and before lunch arrived I was ravenous again. Does this effect have something to do with increasing carbs (especially starch) or thyroid status? I did sleep a little better last night which gives me hope this is turning around 🙂

It’s difficult to appraise causes of hunger from just one day’s experience. It may be that your brain recognized that you need carbs, said “these are good”, and is trying to get you to eat more of them. It doesn’t mean you are going to gain weight if you cut fat calories equal to the amount of carb calories you are adding. Generally once you are well nourished and your diet is balanced, hunger will go away.

I wouldn’t worry about weight for the first month and try to focus on improving health and your sense of well being. The fact that you’re sleeping better is a good sign.

You have been so helpful! Thank you Paul. I am definitely focussed on feeling better first 🙂 I’m actually pretty excited about this change – it feels more “balanced”. My husband (who is Chinese) is pretty happy about the rice and noodle options too.

Hi Paul, the doctor thinks I have depression/anxiety. I am following your advice to eat white rice and potato as well as more fruit. Any additional advice for this situation (supplements/specific foods)? Even though I slept better the first two nights the last 2 days have been rough. Thank you.

The best thing is to read the book and try to follow the full range of advice. The circadian rhythm advice, for instance, is important for mood.

It takes time to relieve micronutrient deficiencies and other problems.

The problems that take the longest to heal are gut dysbioses. Those are also associated with depression. But eating a good diet is the first step to dealing with those.

So I wouldn’t worry too much about what happens in the first week. It will take some time just to understand and implement the diet and lifestyle advice. If symptoms persist after you’ve been following the diet for a few months, you may wish to address gut issues.

Hi, my name is Jenni, I’ve heard a couple interviews about your book and I’m really interested. I’ve eaten a Paleo/primal diet for about a year and a half and have lost about 50 lbs so far. But just yesterday I found out that my gallbladder is full of gall stones which was the cause of my severe abdominal pain.

Long story short, my naturopatic doctor is suggesting that I go on a very low fat diet (she said, it’s fine to continue with the paleo diet, just do low-fat paleo, which doesn’t really work in my opinion). I think that there are several factors which caused these stones, just gave birth to baby #7, and I’ve been eating bacon (not grass fed) several times a week with my eggs in the morning.

She also suggests that I take 2 Tbsp of soy lecithin daily to help shrink the stones. Here I’ve worked hard to get all the soy out of my diet and she is suggesting that it will help me? I’m not sure what to do. I’m considering buying your book, do you address issues like gallstones or gallbladder disease? Or a diet specific to gallbladder issues?

I would really appreciate thoughts on this subject, thanks so much in advance!

Gallstones usually arise from nutrient deficiencies and/or SIBO/infection, in my view. It’s not uncommon for Paleo diets that are overly restrictive to induce problems like this.

Our diet is very effective at preventing gallstones; I’ve never heard of a PHDer developing gallstones.

Now that you have them, I think you want to get lots of citric acid from lemon and lime juice, and lots of vitamin C. These may help dissolve the stones or at least help prevent further growth.

Eating less fat will reduce bile flow and may reduce discomfort, but it may also slow down the rate at which stones are cleared. Find the level of carbs & fat (carbs up, fat down) that is comfortable for you. 30% carbs 50% fat is optimal but you can go higher carb if that feels better.

Lecithin doesn’t have much protein which is the dangerous part of soy, so it is not a bad supplement. Not sure you need that much, but it is nourishing. I wouldn’t avoid it because it’s soy. However, liver, marrow, and brain are alternative sources of similar nutrients.

Our book doesn’t specifically address gallstones but it is a great diet for general health and that is what you need.

Wow, thank you Paul that really helps! I had been feeling like I was not getting enough of something or too much of something but just not sure what! I’ve been dealing with pretty constant stomach aches for months and keep eliminating things to figure out what is causing the stomach aches but it sounds to me from what you are saying, that I probably need to add some things back into my diet. I have been eating sweet potatoes maybe 3 or 4 times a week, if I understand you right, I should be eating something like sweet potatoes daily? What about beets, are they a good source of carbs?

I’ve been losing and don’t want to stop losing weight as I have about another 50 lbs to go. I’ve been afraid to eat carbs because I don’t want to stop losing but it sounds like the right ratio will actually enhance weight loss? I’m going to head over to Amazon and buy your book tonight. Excited and hopeful to get to feeling better. Thanks again for your response, I really appreciate it! Jenni

Beets are a good food, so are sweet potatoes, but the main thing you need are more safe starches like white potatoes and white rice.

In general eating up to 30% carbs and reducing fat in equal amounts won’t hinder weight loss and usually helps. If 30% carbs does hinder weight loss, it indicates a gut dysbiosis which should be fixed.

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